Aircraft

Before dawn on September 23, US military forces were joined by several Gulf coalition partners in striking Islamic State targets in northern Syria. The strikes began with a flurry of 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) and destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51), followed by two waves of…

While the Pentagon refuses to put a price tag on the almost 4,000 air missions US warplanes and drones have flown over Iraq and Syria since early August, analysts have tried to step in and fill the hole. The latest to enter the fray is Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments,…

On Monday, the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette reported that 300 airmen of the 122nd Fighter Wing, a National Guard unit based in Ft. Wayne, IN., would be deploying to the Middle East. Although the deployment has been in the works for a while, it only takes a short jump of logic to think these airmen will end up…

The show floor at last week’s Air Force Association Air & Space Conference, held just outside Washington, was chock full of representatives from industry both big and small. Almost every defense contractor looking to do business with the Air Force had officials circling the floor, ready to ambush anyone wearing stars on their shoulders with a business pitch.…

US Navy’s new Triton UAV makes first cross-country flight The US Navy’s new MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft completed its first cross-country flight on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2014, taking about 11 hours to fly 3,290 nautical miles from Palmdale, California, to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. Flying in restricted conditions through US…

The F-35 is a complicated program. That’s not really news, I know. Technologically, the jet may be the most advanced piece of hardware the military has ever played with, requiring millions of lines of code and all sorts of gadgets spread over three physically different models. Economically, it’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a program, with a trio of…

Much of the Air Force’s new long-range strike bomber program is shrouded in mystery. But that doesn’t mean the advertising about it has to be. The above image was taken at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, during this week’s Air Force Association Air & Space Conference. Northrop Grumman locked down the single biggest physical piece…

In 2014, the Pentagon is all about energy efficiency. Making engines run cleaner and get every ounce of energy out a gallon of fuel could get you that extra mile in a tanker mission or extra two minutes in air for an ISR plane. It’s a path for cost savings with higher mission efficiency.…

(US Army soldiers firing the M198 Howitzer. US Army photo) When the Iraqi Army’s 2nd Division broke and fled ahead of the advancing columns of ISIL fighters near Mosul earlier this summer, they left behind a treasure trove of US supplied military equipment that the jihadists have since turned on the civilian population. Among the…

After almost three years in Afghanistan, 2,150 flight hours and more than 1,950 sorties, the Marine Corps’ two K-MAX unmanned helicopters are being put out to pasture in central New York State. The unmanned rotary wing aircraft—which hauled a total of 4.5 million lbs. of cargo across southern Afghanistan since December 2011 for Marines…